I could live there ... or not ...

[Bristol-Cruiser]

When I travel, which I do a lot, I always find myself wondering whether I could/would want to live in the place being visited. Using this approach I have already decided where I will live in a future life. As a result New Zealand is high on the list, Barcelona, and of course there is Paris. Just got back from eight days in Iceland, south and west shores and Reyjakvik and I loved the place but with reservations. It is a unique place with fascinating geology and geomorphology, not to forget the beautiful glaciers. Iceland remains #3 on the list of happiest countries and I saw no signs of overt poverty and certainly no one sleeping on the street or panhandling. The socialisticalism, to use a PA word, seems to be working.

But ... the weather. A warm day in summer is 15°C (but the winter is not cold for a place at 65°N). Better be a very good sailor (with a sturdy, pilothouse vessel), it seems very windy and there are surprisingly few good harbours and depths would be extreme I think because of volcanism. Don't know how I would handle the very short days in winter with only a few hours of light. Also, it is expensive. Supermarket item prices ranged from similar to Canada to twice as high and restaurants were worse with lunches for two over CAD$100 being the norm. Gas was about CAD$3.25/litre. There are lots of Teslas and plug-in hybrids as a result.

Final judgement - probably not a place I want to live but would love to go back for a summer visit for comparison's sake. There were a lot of tourists in mid-March. I suspect July might be quite crowded. Highly recommend a visit if you haven't been there, but a word to the wise - reserve hotels, major attractions, and rental cars well in advance to get the best selection.

Your choices?

 

[bmiller]

I say that just about every time we go somewhere. But when we get home it's no, where we live is pretty awesome.

Now a second home in Costa Rica to wait out winter is highly desirable.

 

[Ease the sheet.]

I could comfortably spend the rest of my life on an island with a temperate climate.

Of course it would be totally deserted, apart from those I invited.

 

[Gissie]

Having lived/worked in more than a few countries for over 20 years the reality is often very different to what is seen on a visit, even an extended one.

Happy to be back at my starting point, although not sure I like the direction it has taken during my absence and is continuing to take. But still better than anywhere else for me, and get off my lawn.

 

[Gissie]

I could comfortably spend the rest of my life on an island with a temperate climate.

Of course it would be totally deserted, apart from those I invited.

If they accepted the invite...

 

[Ease the sheet.]

If they accepted the invite...

Of course.

I'm hoping the in-laws are busy that weekend. So are they.

 

[White Lightning2]

I have done very little traveling outside the good ol' USofA. Just NA (Mexico and Canada). In part because flying is degrading experience where you are treated like cattle (just short of the bolt to the brain)

So instead, I travel this amazing Country of ours by road. I love Northern Idaho and Montana and we may resettle there at some point. We currently live about an hour North of Seattle and like the geography/climate of this latitude.
The red rock desert of Utah and Arizona is amazing. The canyons of Colorado are spectacular.

We've been through most of the western states and in a few years will be traveling the rest of them.

I would love to visit NZ, Africa, Scotland someday.

But if I never do more than spend my retirement exploring these 50 states, I will be happy.

WL

 

[Fah Kiew Tu]

Staying right where I am.

OK, if Ease The Sheet bought the place next door I may have to reconsider but fortunately that's unlikely to happen. Places change hands around every 20 years here when people age out & need more medical services.

Given the geographical expanse of Australia/New Zealand I've no plans to go elsewhere especially if it involves getting on an airplane.

FKT

 

[Steam Flyer]

Having lived/worked in more than a few countries for over 20 years the reality is often very different to what is seen on a visit, even an extended one.

Happy to be back at my starting point, although not sure I like the direction it has taken during my absence and is continuing to take. But still better than anywhere else for me, and get off my lawn.

All the people in those other places are happy about it, too

 

[Pipe Dream]

Staying right where I am.

OK, if Ease The Sheet bought the place next door I may have to reconsider but fortunately that's unlikely to happen. Places change hands around every 20 years here when people age out & need more medical services.

Given the geographical expanse of Australia/New Zealand I've no plans to go elsewhere especially if it involves getting on an airplane.

FKT

Too right. I’m at the northern part of our lovely island and well ensconced in my comfort zone. I haven’t left Tas since before covid and do not miss Melbourne or Sydney (or any other city like that) at all. Any other place outside of a city would have similar regional problems as exist here but I wouldn’t have friends and family and familiar places nearby so I am more than happy to stay put.

 

[boomer]

Not liking cities, having lived in and visited cities up and down the west coast most my early life, I wanted country rural living. My Grandpa said when I was little, buy property where you want to live and retire. One thing I found over the years, even in remote locations, whether they be the South Pacific, the Indian Ocean, Alaska, Nova Scotia, Iceland, the Nortdic countries, to the Falklands to New Zealand or Tasmania - everyplace has it's excessive element. One has to make the best one can of any situation, whether in a city or out in the country with few neighbors, and regardless of people or politics.

So taking his advice to heart, on a return job from Olympic Peninsula in 1965, north Kitsap County rural living with few neighbors, on the Kitsap Peninsula, part of the Olympic Peninsula - was where I wanted to settle live. With a marina close in Kingston, a grid to paint my my boat bottoms, and the beautiful sailing waters of North Puget Sound and Admiralty inlet. To me Kingston was the on ramp to some great sailing in local waters, with the San Juans and British Columbia waters just across the Straits, the Inside Passage and Alaskan waters only sweetened the prospective plan.

After my time in the service, seeing both more cities and remote regions including some fairly exotic places. - Coming back to the Olympic Peninsula after my service time, confirmed where I wanted to live, and with much better sailing up Admiralty Inlet then the light air on most of the rest Puget Sound. Being on the edge of the Olympic Mountains rain shadow, sealed the deal, plus the mountain climbing close by. Within six months of starting looking in June of 1976. I found a piece of property with few neighbors close by, on the old Newellhurst Farms, in a pouring rainstorm at the end of December 1976, with rolling hills that I liked more then flat ground, signed the papers right after the 1st of the New Year. I knew if I liked it in a rainstorm, I'd really like it in the sun shine.

 

[Gissie]

All the people in those other places are happy about it, too

Undoubtedly. The leaving parties always seemed suspiciously well attended. Often even an escort to the airport. Not a uniformed escort of course, or the other sort of escort I have heard you have a proclivity to engage. But there seemed a lot of smiling faces as I departed.

 

[Bagheera]

Born, raised and educated in the Netherlands, lived and worked in Norway, Finland, Germany, China, Korea, Canada and now in Alaska. In addition I have traveled to over a hundred different countries including for work. Every place has its benefits and downsides. So far, I dislike the USA the most, but Alaska is remote enough, wild enough and sparsely populated enough that the nature experience and being able to live off the land overrules my dislike of the country and the values that a majority of the population seems to hold. The Scandinavian countries seem to have the most freedom of all countries that I have ever set foot in. Some Americans are proud of their 'freedom' but the freedom that Americans actually have is very little compared to most modern countries with a democratic socialism structure (Central Europe, Scandinavia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand etc.).

I live 3 miles outside of a small town, have my boat at a private dock in front of my house, live in the middle of the woods, can see whales breach from my hot tub, have juvenile eagles taking flying lessons from the adults right in my back yard, can't see or hear any of my neighbors. This could be my forever home, as long as I get to keep getting my boat out to even more remote places to enjoy my summers. I'm happy if there are not to many humans around and the nature is wild, unspoiled and plentyful.

 

[Dorado]

I used to think like that, when the wife and I traveled around.

Then I bought an electric heated toilet seat. Now I just want to go back home.

 

[Ed Lada]

Undoubtedly. The leaving parties always seemed suspiciously well attended. Often even an escort to the airport. Not a uniformed escort of course, or the other sort of escort I have heard you have a proclivity to engage. But there seemed a lot of smiling faces as I departed.

You should have seen the real party after your plane took off and they knew for sure that you were on it!

 

[Bristol-Cruiser]

I have done very little traveling outside the good ol' USofA. Just NA (Mexico and Canada). In part because flying is degrading experience where you are treated like cattle (just short of the bolt to the brain)

So instead, I travel this amazing Country of ours by road. I love Northern Idaho and Montana and we may resettle there at some point. We currently live about an hour North of Seattle and like the geography/climate of this latitude.
The red rock desert of Utah and Arizona is amazing. The canyons of Colorado are spectacular.

We've been through most of the western states and in a few years will be traveling the rest of them.

I would love to visit NZ, Africa, Scotland someday.

But if I never do more than spend my retirement exploring these 50 states, I will be happy.

WL

So get a boat and go. On our rtw we visited about 40 countries (do French Polynesia, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and St Martin count as one (France) or multiple?). The neat thing going by boat is that you are a traveller and not a tourist. You need to learn about local shopping, how the buses work, how to get repairs done, etc. Also, no airplanes and you get to go where airplanes (and tourists) don't go.

 

[BeSafe]

I'm still a long way from retirement but close enough to start considering. The plan, at this point, is to 'Slomad' a couple places - basically get a 3-6 month apartment in the appropriate area and live there for a while. Wife and I both come from poor families and always have had a small footprint, so that's not much of a lifestyle compromise. We'll give it a shot. At this point, there's no grandkids but that would obviously complicate the adventure in a good way.

 

[MagentaLine]

I will live in Montana. And I will marry a round American woman and raise rabbits, and she will cook them for me. And I will have a pickup truck... maybe even a "recreational vehicle." And drive from state to state. Do they let you do that?

 

[dacapo]

We fell in love with the bay islands of Honduras 12 years ago and bought a teeny section of an island. We still go back but the older we are the less we want to live there permanently. Too much work on an island w/o water, electricity , plumbing and too costly to transform it into what we want in our retirement. Prolly selling the plot back to the owner of the rest of the island this year at some point.

More and more think besides our home in NY we’ll likely roam the planet on a boat experiencing new places when we’re not here.

 

[veni vidi vici]

When I travel, which I do a lot, I always find myself wondering whether I could/would want to live in the place being visited. Using this approach I have already decided where I will live in a future life. As a result New Zealand is high on the list, Barcelona, and of course there is Paris. Just got back from eight days in Iceland, south and west shores and Reyjakvik and I loved the place but with reservations. It is a unique place with fascinating geology and geomorphology, not to forget the beautiful glaciers. Iceland remains #3 on the list of happiest countries and I saw no signs of overt poverty and certainly no one sleeping on the street or panhandling. The socialisticalism, to use a PA word, seems to be working.

But ... the weather. A warm day in summer is 15°C (but the winter is not cold for a place at 65°N). Better be a very good sailor (with a sturdy, pilothouse vessel), it seems very windy and there are surprisingly few good harbours and depths would be extreme I think because of volcanism. Don't know how I would handle the very short days in winter with only a few hours of light. Also, it is expensive. Supermarket item prices ranged from similar to Canada to twice as high and restaurants were worse with lunches for two over CAD$100 being the norm. Gas was about CAD$3.25/litre. There are lots of Teslas and plug-in hybrids as a result.

Final judgement - probably not a place I want to live but would love to go back for a summer visit for comparison's sake. There were a lot of tourists in mid-March. I suspect July might be quite crowded. Highly recommend a visit if you haven't been there, but a word to the wise - reserve hotels, major attractions, and rental cars well in advance to get the best selection.

Your choices?

We spent 2 weeks in Iceland and drove the Ring Road, beautiful and extremely expensive, BS on the happiest list and a pox upon those who make it and actually believe it.
Home is where the heart is
If money was not in the equation I’d base out of Miami and San Diego